Local artist ‘leaves nothing but herself’ in new exhibit

Michele Rojas Rivera, founder of the Artistic Horizon art center and Bears that Care program in State College, will have an exhibit in the Community Gallery at the Bellefonte Art Museum through Oct. 30. The exhibit, titled “She Leaves,” opens Sept. 30.

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Rivera graduated from Kingsborough College with an early childhood education degree and from Penn State’s School of Visual Arts with a degree in fine arts. She works in ceramics, metals and watercolors, and her passion is to pass on her addiction to create through her instruction at the university, local art centers and various charter schools where she is teaching or has taught art programs.

“I started messing around with art as a teenager but stopped until I went to Penn State,” she said. “Since then I’ve been creating and teaching art in Centre County for a little over 16 years.”

Among various formats, Rivera works in clay and mixed-media and uses the material that she feels would best translate her ideas.

“For this show I worked in watercolors,” she said. “I especially like working with them as wet-on-wet technique because it allows the paint to have a life of its own.”

“She Leaves” describes the struggle to reveal layers of herself through her artwork by pulling one leaf at a time.

“Layers of experiences, relationships and future goals shake loose as leaves fall from the tree, until there is nothing left but the bark on the tree by the fall,” Rivera said. “She leaves nothing but herself.”

Among Rivera’s other works, “The Embrace” brings image and words together for a message of love, and the struggle to hold onto it.

“ ‘The Seasoned One’ shows the future of us all getting old — a look at the face of aging,” she said. “The person seems androgynous so the viewer can relate to it whether they are male or female.”

Rivera creates her art as a release of images that she feels are inside of her and feels that she grows as a person through the process of creating the artwork.

“A good final product is an extra bonus, but not all work makes it to framing,” she said. “The process is more important than the final/finished artwork.”

For those who admire her artwork, Rivera’s wish is that viewers connect to it on some emotional level and that they feel an encouragement to create for themselves.

“I also practice what I preach, as I share with many of my students — children and adults — information and execution for their art,” she said. “My goal is to help them to grow through their art — something that I have firsthand experience in.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Local artist ‘leaves nothing but herself’ in new exhibit."